This invention involves a method and system for storing, retrieving, and managing data for any type of tag that is associated in any type of manner to any type of object, physical or abstract, animate or inanimate. A tag is any device that sends, receives and/or stores data about whatever it is monitoring or is associated with; it includes many different types such as radio frequency identification device (RFID) tags, laser tags, cellular phones, devices that receive and transmit signals from television networks, any type of satellite communication network such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), etc. A tag may be powered by any type of power source such as a DC power source, an AC power source, solar, etc. Identification devices are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,960 to Charles Walton, entitled, “Electronic Identification & Recognition System,” the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. The types of objects that may be associated with tags include but are not limited to people, animals, plants, things of any kind, real property such as houses, lots, condominiums, mobile homes and townhouses, valuable items such as paintings, diamonds, jewelry, watches, and antiques, movable items such as automobiles, airplanes, military vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, boats, ships, components thereof, locations, environmental conditions, abstractions, concepts, phenomena, etc. Associations between tags and objects can be of any type including but not limited to one-to-many, many-to-one or one-to-one, physical, logical, etc. Physical associations may include attaching and/or inserting the tag to its associated object.
The present invention is adapted for a wide variety of uses. For example, the method and system of the present invention may be used to authenticate valuable items, to manage inventory such as the tracking of objects of any kind through manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, etc. to the point of sale and beyond, to track the movements of objects such as people, animals, plants, movable items, etc., to retrieve historical data such as price histories from things such as valuable items and real property, to retrieve any type of health data such as medical conditions, treatment history, medication instructions, etc. from people and animals, to track any type of health conditions such as heart rate, pulse rate, temperature, the amount of different things in the blood such as oxygen, sugar, etc. for people and animals.
The present invention may also be used to learn who owns a certain entity, where an entity is located, when a movable entity was last within a spatial vicinity, what entities were within a spatial vicinity of a specific entity, E [either during a specified temporal period or over E's entire recorded lifetime], what entities had a particular attribute value (e.g., temperature) when they were in a spatial vicinity of any entity that had a particular attribute value during the time it was within the spatial vicinity, etc. Exemplary queries include the following:                “What are the addresses and purchase prices of the houses in Stony Brook, N.Y. that have the same brand of water heater as the water heater in the house at 1234 Belvedere Road, Stony Brook, N.Y.?”        “What are the current traffic conditions of U.S. Highway 101 in the city of Santa Barbara?”        “What were the traffic conditions of U.S. Highway 101 in the city of Santa Barbara on 2005.10.12 between 10:00 and 10:12?”        “Give me the current location of food items that originated in Bangkok, Thailand that, after last Saturday, were within 1 mile of chemical compounds which, at any time, passed through San Pedro harbor.”        “Give me the name of the doctor of every person who was in Peking at the same time as any food item was in Peking, which was in Bangkok, Thailand after person X was diagnosed with Avian Flu.”        “Give me the location of every product produced in any manufacturing facility on any day that any member of group X was present at that manufacturing facility.”        “Give me the name of the doctor of every person whose homocysteine level increases by more than 15% within 12 months of purchasing a prescription drug that contains lycopene manufactured in Belgium.”        
The first three queries could be asked by a passenger in a car, or by a car on behalf of its driver. The benefits are similar to those attributed to traffic reports on radio stations.
Many different benefits may arise from the various uses of the present invention. For example, its use may decrease the costs of determining the value of a thing such as a valuable item because, for instance, the price history and other similar data for that item could be easily stored and retrieved from its associated tag. The availability of price history from a tag associated with a house as well as that from other houses in the same neighborhood may prevent a seller from charging an excessively high value to a buyer with little or no knowledge of the actual value of the house. Use of the present invention may prevent the fraudulent substitution of a counterfeit for a valuable item because identification data from the item's associated tag could be used to verify that item's authenticity. Use of the present invention may prevent a car owner from passing off a damaged car as an undamaged one to an unsuspecting buyer because a car's accident history could be stored and retrieved from the car's associated tag. Use of the present invention could prevent the theft of military secrets because clearance information could be easily accessed from the tag associated with a person to determine whether that person should have access to such secrets. Use of the present invention may avoid injury or even death to athletes that may occur while they are performing because their heart rate, temperature, and other medical conditions could be easily monitored. For similar reasons, a coach could use the present invention to quickly determine which players are too fatigued to be effective; an athletic recruiter could use the present invention to determine which players are better able to handle the rigors of competition; and athletic trainers could use the present invention to tailor training programs to particular athletes. Use of the present invention may ease the authentication of evidence at trial because chain of custody could be easily retrieved from the evidence's associated tag at trial. Use of the present invention will further automate and simplify the management of inventory.
The present invention may also facilitate the timely location of tainted food, or people who have been exposed to a virus. It may associate a group of people with an event through a long chain of prior conditions or events. It may be used to predict the popularity of an item (e.g., a song, stock, book, or vacation resort) by examining high order derivatives with respect to time of purchase patterns in areas or sets of people that are deemed to be trend setters. It can, for example, be used to determine if any congressman was in contact with (e.g., communicated via the telephone with, or was in the same room as) someone whose car or cellular phone, in a 48-hour period (before and after that point in time), was within ¼ mile of the Chinese Embassy. Monitoring complex events (e.g., flu outbreaks, and bioterrorism as manifested via Emergency Room data) can be formulated as standing queries, obviating the expenses associated with a special-purpose system for such monitoring.
Tags and similar devices have been disclosed in other references but no prior art reference discloses the use of such tags in a system and method for storing, retrieving and managing data for a variety of applications including authentication, tracking, health care monitoring, health care management, knowledge acquisition, etc. In contrast, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,440,096, 5,358,514, 5,193,540, 6,107,102, and 6,405,066 discuss the implantation of microdevices in people. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,606,260, 4,892,709, 5,367,878, 6,152,181, 5,834,790, 5,186,001, 5,839,056, and 5,144,298 discuss the use of microdevices as sensors or controllers.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a system and method for storing, retrieving, and managing data for any type of tag that is associated in any type of manner to any type of object.
Moreover, there exists a need for a system and method for accessing and/or storing data associated with tags from or into many repositories, constructing and maintaining data structures from these repositories, and responding to queries using data structures.